Belgian Court Orders Google to Remove News Links

A Belgian court has ordered Google to stop reproducing article snippets from French-language newspapers -- a practice that is not only common on the Internet, but that Google argues is perfectly legal. Google has removed the links but plans to appeal the decision.

By Erika Morphy
09/19/06 8:46 AM PT

A Belgian court has ruled that Google violated
the country's copyright laws when its news site linked to
articles published by French-language newspapers. The
decision, handed down by the equivalent of Belgium's federal
court, Palais de Justice, came in response to a
complaint filed by Copiepresse, a trade group that
represents French and German-language newspapers.

It is unclear why the complaint covered only
French-language publications. As part of its ruling,
the court has threatened Google with fines of
1 million euros (US$1.3 million) per day if it refuses to stop publishing the
content.

Google has removed the relevant links, according to
D-J Collins, a Google spokesperson based in London.
"We are treating this as an official request by the
publishers to be removed from our index," he told
TechNewsWorld. "It is very easy for a publisher to be
removed from the index that Google uses for its search
results -- all it has to do is ask. We would have been
delighted to do so in this case without the
involvement of the legal system in Brussels.

Google is in the process of filing an appeal.
Google was not notified of the lawsuit or provided with an
opportunity to defend itself before the court, which
can be in accordance with Belgian law.

Two Areas

Copiepresse's concerns appear to center on two
areas: one, Google never asked for permission to index
its articles; and two, the links go directly to the
articles and not the newspaper's Web sites.
Collins maintains that there has not been an
infringement of copyright. "National and international
legislation is clear in this regard. Publishing
'snippets' of newspaper articles is allowed," he said.

Some publishers over the years have taken issue with
Google's links to their content. Google has dealt with
complaints from Agency France Presse and AP either by
coming to an agreement or by removing content.

Whether
the Belgian court's ruling will prompt other European news agencies
to take similar actions remains to be seen. A Copiepresse
spokesperson told reporters the trade group is informing its counterparts throughout the Continent of the ruling and hopes to see them take
similar action.

Domino Effect

This issue
can be of real concern to publishers, and it is one that is not easily
resolved, agrees Darren S. Enenstein, a partner at Moldo, Davidson,
Fraioli, Seror & Sestanovich. "For them, it is a balancing act -- whether
they want the revenues or the exposure," he told
TechNewsWorld.

For the most part, publishers appear to
gravitate toward exposure, given Google's huge
audience.

"It will be interesting to see if this
decision has a domino effect among other news
agencies," remarked Enenstein.